Line-ups of the teams for 2013 Argentine Triple Crown announced

The Asociación Argentina de Polo (AAP) has announced the line-ups of the six teams that will participate in the 2013 Argentine Triple Crown. The Triple Crown consists of the three Opens Tortugas Open, Hurlingham Open and Argentine Open and is a series of the most important tournaments worldwide. Furthermore, six teams have the opportunity to participate in the Triple Crown after competing against each other in the Qualifying Tournament.

The Ellerstina and La Dolfina will attend the games with the same players as last season. Ellerstina has the brothers Facundo (+10), Gonzalo (+10) and Nicolás Pieres (+9) in its line-up, together with Mariano Aguerre (+10). La Dolfina again comes up with Adolfo Cambiaso (+10), David Stirling (+9), Pablo Mac Donough (+10) and Juan Martín Nero (+10). Both have a team handicap of +39 this year, as Stirling, formerly +10, is now rated at +9. La Aguada Las Monjitas (+33) also goes for the same team as last year with Lucas James, Cristian Laprida, together with Eduardo and Alejandro Novillo Astrada.

The three other teams each change one of their players. The line-up of La Natividad, having the third highest handicap (+35), consists again of Ignacio Heguy (+9), Rodrigo Ribeiro de Andrade (+8) and Bartolomé Castagnola (+9), Guillermo Caset (+9) is a new member of the team and takes the place of Pablo Pieres. La Aguada (+34) replaces Caset with the young, up-and-coming Facundo Sola (+8), while the rest of the team remains the same as in 2012 with Javier (+8), Miguel (+9) and Ignacio Novillo Astrada (+9). New team member Pablo Pieres (+8) will make the foursome of Alegría (+34) complete, other players are Hilario Ulloa (+9), Lucas Monteverde (+9) and Canada’s Frederick Mannix (+8).

With the same handicap total as last year, La Aguada Las Monjitas nevertheless has directly qualified for the Triple Crown. The reason for this is related to the biggest surprise of the season: the Pilará team with brothers Sebastián, Agustín and Juan Ignacio Merlos is not going to participate in the Triple Crown.

In addition to this teams there are six more, which will be competing against each other for a participation in the Triple Crown by playing the Qualifying Tournament, which this year will be known as “90o. Aniversario de la AAP” (the AAP’s 90th Anniversary). The two teams with the highest-handicap will be Magual (+32), with Alejandro Muzzio (+8), Ignacio Toccalino (+8), Marcos Di Paola (+8) and Jaime García Huidobro (+8) and Chapaleufú (+30), with brothers Alberto (+7), Bautista (+8) and Eduardo Heguy (+8), together with Francisco Elizalde (+7). Other teams in the Qualifying Tournament will be Cuatro Vientos (+29), La California (+29), Las Overas (+28) and La Vanguardia (+28).